A few days ago, I visited several bookstores of Kathmandu searching for books on Nepali dalits. To my dismay, I did not find much except a few books based on researches conducted by foreign scholars and a few written by high-caste Nepali authors.Ethnographic writing on dalit started when Nepal's access to the West opened in 1950. Patricia Caplan's Priests and Cobblers (1972) deals with ongoing social change in Hindu society during the 1970s and Hofer's Kamis (1976) deals with working conditions of iron-smiths at the time. Perhaps inspired by these writers, Nepali researchers have also joined the bandwagon. Dr Krishna Bahadur Bhattachan, Hira Vishwakarma, Yam Bahadur Kisan and Dr Tara Lama Shrestha have penned books on dalits. Without these foreign and Nepali writers (not all of them dalits), it would have been impossible to sensitize the people in Nepal where the majority supports caste-based discrimination.
Dalits themselves have to take up writing to push their agenda. The creative potential they unleash in making of utensils, ornaments, weapons, shoes, clothes, stone/wood carving should be used for writing about themselves and their hardships.
Writing does wonders. African American literature created waves of consciousness against discrimination against the blacks in the 20th century. It has its origin in New Negro Movement. Jazz and blues followed. The Negros pushed their agenda through writing and creative arts. Harlem Renaissance (1920-1930) institutionalized African American literature as a subject of academic inquiry.
Dalit Panther Movement followed in India, and it got national recognition during the lifetime of Dr BR Ambedkar. He was the first untouchable to be educated in the US and the UK. After independence, democracy awakened Indian masses, including dalits and other tribal groups. Ambedkar raised socio-economic and political awareness among dalits through his writings and speeches.
Indian dalit writers have contributed in the broader sensitization of dalit issues in India. By early 1970s, the Dalit literature in India had already taken shape as a movement. The forerunner of the movement was Anna Bhau Sathe (1920-1968) whose stories and novels are now read across the country.
Dalit writers, in my view, need to be realistic. They need to describe as truthfully as possible what they see and feel without any personal value judgement. They need to record suffering, humiliation and heroic deeds and document social, religious, economic and political conditions of dalit community. This will go a long way in achieving dignity for dalits.
Writing is an expression of reality. Great pieces of literature do that. Like African American slave narratives, dalit narratives should explore stories of dalit victims who have endured exploitation in their own soil. Dalit literature should bring out the agonies of humiliation, injustice, atrocities, and discriminations perpetrated by the upper-caste people.
Dalits are victims of caste- and gender-based discriminations in Nepal. To be born a Hindu in Nepal is to enter into caste system, perhaps one of the world's longest surviving forms of social stratification. Dalits are not allowed to enter temples, hotel and upper caste settlements. If they do, they encounter strong resistance from upper caste people which result in assault, torture, rapes and other forms of atrocities. Writers need to bring out these plights through literary works.
Dalit literature should not be limited to an intellectual exercise. It should advocate rights of the Dalit community and inspire people to rise against oppression. It should advocate change and the society's socio-economic transformation. It should document the humane sides of people who have been socially and economically exploited for hundreds of years.
Dalits are still considered impure and unskilled. Few dalits have begun to assert themselves through their speeches and writings. Foreign writers are especially well aware of the sufferings of dalits. They have crafted movies, dramas, folk songs, short stories, poems, novels, articles and researches which illustrate social, religious, economical and political life of Dalit community. This is good.
But dalit writers should write their stories themselves. Writers from other communities cannot capture the feelings of dalits better than dalit writers. An imported broom may sweep and clean, but the old brush is aware of all corners.
The author is a meditation practitioner, women self-defense expert and sociologist
girithezorba@gmail.com
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